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Air Conditioning (A/C) is something that most cars on the road have equipped these days. Although if you feel like your A/C isn’t functioning properly (not enough air coming through it or you don’t notice the car getting cooler/warmer) then you may want to test it in this very simple way.

While driving turn on the A/C to maximum and put the system in recirculate mode (button has an orange light and an arrow bent back on itself). Within a minute or two the air from the vents should be noticeably chilly. If you have a digital thermometer at home, you may want to bring that along so you can measure the temperature of the air coming from the vents. The temperature should be around 6°C

Whilst you are having a look under the bonnet you can also check if the air conditioning compressor is working. With the engine running and the A/C is set to maximum and in recirculate mode, listen for a clicking noise accompanied by the engine revs rising or falling slightly. This is the compressor engaging and disengaging and is what you want to hear. You may need to turn the A/C on and off to make this occur on demand.

Lastly if you know little about cars, you should look out for the metal air conditioning pipes. You should be able to locate a thick pipe (low pressure) and a thinner pipe (which is high pressure). When the air conditioning has been running for a couple of minutes the thicker pipe should be nice and cool (almost frosty to the touch!). Be careful when putting your hands into the engine bay when the engine is running though! You don’t want to burn yourself or put your fingers into a spinning fan, as this would obviously hurt a lot!

If the testing for this has failed and you can’t notice the cooler/warmer air flowing through the car, your air conditioning may be faulty, which means you’ll need to get it repaired as quickly as possible (you don’t want to cook inside your car during the summer do you?). Here at Widnes Autoelectrics, we can repair and even fit a brand new air conditioning system if necessary, whatever the fault in your vehicle is, we will be able to help and we can offer a solution, whether that be a repair or a new system altogether. If you’re air conditioning has failed you due to it being faulty, bring your vehicle into us and we’ll fix it for you! To get into contact with us, please click here.